Garry Winogrand: Some Animals

December 12, 2010–April 4, 2011

Garry Winogrand was a key figure in American photography, who in the 1960s began to advance a highly personalized visual language that challenged the notion of the photographer as an objective witness. Winogrand’s series The Animals comprises black-and-white, wide-angle photographs of people visiting New York zoos and its one aquarium at Coney Island. Taken between 1962 and 1969, and first presented in the eponymous 1969-70 exhibition at MoMA, Winogrand’s images blur the boundary between viewer and subject, revealing the natural and often humorous parallel between the behaviors of humans and animals. The photographs’ depiction of captivity can be read as a metaphor for the pervasive racial and gender segregations of the era, while also serving as an examination of public recreation and voyeurism.

Garry Winogrand: Some Animals is organized by Peter
Eleey, Curator of MoMA PS1.